Kurds Resist ISIS Attack in Syria, Kill 30+ terrorists

Members of the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia repelled a series of counter-attacks against the ISIS terrorist organization in Syria’s eastern desert province of Deir ez-Zor, local media reported.

The ANF Kurdish news agency reported on Sunday that terrorists took advantage of heavy rains in the region and attacked SDF positions north and northwest of the city of Hajin in Deir ez-Zor. The terrorists were using heavy weapons.

The troops managed to kill at least 31 members of ISIS, leaving dozens of others injured. Two vehicles of the terrorists were also destroyed, one of them loaded with explosives.

The SDF is the set of militias formed mainly by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) who control the north-east of Syria and are supported by the United States. They advocate the creation of a Kurdish state of secular and democratic orientation, but continually attack and harass local Arab and Assyrian populations. Damascus considers the group’s actions to be illegal and Turkey accuses the SDF of being an extension of the Turkish Kurdish separatist group known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whom it classifies as “terrorists.”

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Elsewhere in Syria, days ago, a shootout by militants in the provinces of Hama and Idlib in Syria left four four Syrian soldiers dead and another wounded, according to a statement from the Syrian Reconciliation Center of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“Four militants from the Syrian Arab Republic were killed and one soldier was wounded,” the statement said. “They attacked settlements in Dejaj [in Idlib province] and Abu-Dali in Hama province.

The Center also stated that it has reported continued violations of the ceasefire regime by armed and illegal groups operating in Idlib province.

Syria has been in a state of war since 2011. Government forces face opposition groups and terrorist organizations. Russia, alongside Turkey and Iran, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria.

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies. He has an MA in International Relations and is interested in Great Power Rivalry as well as the International Relations and Political Economy of the Middle East and Latin America.